Murder of dentist: Hats off to IPS Monika Bhardwaj who thwarted communal polarization

New Delhi: On Wednesday night when dentist Pankaj Narang was playing cricket with his eight-year-old son and a nephew in a small space outside his house at a locality in Vikaspuri , the ball hit two men who were passing by on a motorcycle. This led to a scuffle between the doctor and the duo. While one of them was identified as Naseer (23), the other was a minor, both residents of a nearby slum cluster.

After the scuffle, the duo left the spot, abandoning their motorbike there, following which the doctor also returned home with the children.

The duo, however, returned with at least 10 other people in a few minutes who dragged the dentist out of his house and beat him mercilessly with wooden sticks and bricks, leading to his death, police said, quoting the victim’s family.

Although the killers were identified and nabbed by police but right wing politicians and communal groups started giving this gruesome killing a communal color on social media saying the attackers were Muslims and Bangladeshis etc and also they killed the doctor because he was Hindu etc.

This was the time IPS officer Monika Bhardwaj, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Delhi) came up on Twitter started giving details about the arrested accused and tweeted “Out of 9 accused persons 5 are Hindu. At the moment of first scuffle, one out of two was Hindu. The Muslim accused are residents of UP, not Bangladesh,”

In her another tweet she clarified that no religious angle was found in the murder of the doctor Narang and tweeted “4 juveniles are among 9 arrested for murder of Vikaspuri doctor. No religious angle at all, as rumoured by some. We appeal to you to maintain peace,” tweeted young police officer of Puducherry cadre” Monika Bhardwaj tweeted.

Her both tweets went viral on social media and it changed the situation all of a sudden. Her quick and prompt tweets made an impact on social media and she successfully thwarted the nefarious design of right wing politicians and members of radical Hindu groups who were trying to give it a communal color for political gain ahead of assembly polls in five states.